The Polatsk
Town Court held yesterday a preliminary hearing on the suit lodged by Viktar Stukau,
activist of the Free Trade Union, who was sacked by his employer at the
Polatsk-Shklovalakno state-owned enterprise. The parties have had the
opportunity to come to terms, if the company’s administration supported the demands
brought by the activist. However, this did not happen, and the trial will
continue.

Viktar Stukau
demands reinstatement, compensation of earnings lost during unemployment, bonus
payments, which he was deprived of as a result of a disciplinary action, as
well as compensation for the moral damage that the activist estimated at 1
million rubles.

Moral
damage, according to Viktar Stukau, is the result of the discriminative treatment
of him as a member of the Free Trade Union:

“Discrimination
is when the master runs through the whole shop to check if you are working in
the glasses. Nobody cares that the other workers have moved them to the
forehead... Discrimination is when the whole shift leaves work early to catch
the bus, instead of walking 4 km to the town, and it is the FTU alone activist
who accused of violating labor discipline. Among other things, we went to
different organs to harmonize the work and bus schedules. But the
administration did not agree to fix anything. And now, to suppress the workers’
initiative Polatsk-Shklovalakno started destroying the independent trade union.”

The sacked trade
union leader believes that the administration violated his right to work and
the right to freedom of association. Convention № 87 of the International Labor
Organization was also violated, which prohibits to dismiss a trade union
leader.

The International
Trade Union Confederation issued a statement in defense of the dismissed trade
union activist. In its letter to the manager of Polatsk-Shklovalakno M.
Kachanouski and deputy manager for human resources Liudmila Prop protests at
the discrimination of workers on the grounds of trade union membership. The
statement was signed by the ITUC’s director of human and trade
union rights Stephen Benedict.

The Free
Trade Union also expressed protest against the dismissal of Viktar Stukau. The
trade union’s leaders put the responsibility for the consequences of this step
on the administration of Polatsk-Shklovalakno, as the story of violations against
the head the FTU’s local office and the rights of other employees will have a
direct impact on the image of the enterprise, including in the field of
cooperation with foreign partners.